Asus r0uters

[tp4tissue]

Taiwan is a really Hot and Humid place. You'd think they'd make cool running routers...

No fan,  96' Celcius at 20% (router cpu) load

w/ fan,  64' Celcius

if we assume tjunc on 28nm chip is probably 100C,  there's virtually no room here.

Not even a top of the line router, a lowly last gen, only 2 cores. their quad core ones must be even hotter.

[suicidal_orange]

Terrible design, you'd think they would hide the temps if they're that bad.

Without zooming I thought it was PoE but I see that's just a zip tie, does the fan run on 5v from the USB3 or would that be too convenient?

[tp4tissue]

tp4 is 2 p00r,   he cut up an old 7v cellfone charger to power the fan.


the fact that this is an ACTUAL PRODUCT sold for this SPECIFIC router says all,  terrible design indeed.

look at how terrible the board design is, the heatsink has to clear the RF shielding beneath, so they just used a giant 2.5mm thermal pad...  That's just lazy...

[tp4tissue]

LOL, look at this advertisement..

Translation: achmm..

<One mustn't dawdle to lower the temperature

Don't let high temperature destroy your router.

High end routers outputting significant heat is a real problem.

High heat output can easily cause slow internet speed, instability, disconnection and rapid device degradation.  >

The Flame wheel and Tiger Logo reallllly lets you know how serious they are.

[Leslieann]

the fact that this is an ACTUAL PRODUCT sold for this SPECIFIC router says all,  terrible design indeed.

No, it doesn't.
They will try and sell anything they can, don't need a reason.  That chip may run just fine at those temps (LOL no).

To be fair though, most routers and access points are simply garbage anyhow, they are designed to fail, it's only a matter of how soon. Many of them ship with power bricks that can't even properly power the CPU, let along the other components or something plugged into the USB port.

[tp4tissue]

the fact that this is an ACTUAL PRODUCT sold for this SPECIFIC router says all,  terrible design indeed.

No, it doesn't.
They will try and sell anything they can, don't need a reason.  That chip may run just fine at those temps (LOL no).

To be fair though, most routers and access points are simply garbage anyhow, they are designed to fail, it's only a matter of how soon. Many of them ship with power bricks that can't even properly power the CPU, let along the other components or something plugged into the USB port.

I'm not expecting them to mill a custom heatsink since yea that's expensive. but this really does seem like planned obsolescence.

If you took this router to texas, it'd explodz.

[Leslieann]

On average in my experience...

Cheap ones last ~ 18 months
Average ones ~ 2 to 3 years
Good ones 4-5 years, a few make it to 7.

There is very much a planned obsolecense and it has nothing to do with the technology, you can probably get by with 10 year old router just fine but they need a reason to force you to replace it. Same with cell phones.

[tp4tissue]

On average in my experience...

Cheap ones last ~ 18 months
Average ones ~ 2 to 3 years
Good ones 4-5 years, a few make it to 7.

There is very much a planned obsolecense and it has nothing to do with the technology, you can probably get by with 10 year old router just fine but they need a reason to force you to replace it. Same with cell phones.

My n66u which this new router replaces had 2 electrolytic caps ABOVE the heatsink, where heat rises from below.   This router was also actively kewled by Tp4,   if not, those caps would almost certainly have blown, it's still working perfectly after 7 years, but cpu is too slow for gigabit traffic..

at least on the new router, they've used polymer caps and moved them below the heatsink.

Asus also insists on using quite high voltage ac adapters even though nothing on the board needs it, so they have a step down vrm which wastes power and is a failure point.

[fohat.digs]

There is very much a planned obsolecense and it has nothing to do with the technology,

So, does the traffic you pull through it "wear it out" or shorten its life?

I live alone and am not a heavy user, downloading the occasional music or video and watching YouTubes from time to time. My primary computer is hard-wired via ethernet and there is little wireless traffic, mostly my cell phone which is not heavily used.

I never "feel" the unit (it's under a desk) but I doubt that it ever heats up very much, so does that mean that it should last longer?

Thanks

[tp4tissue]

the wifi goes through an "amplifier" which is why routers need all those little flat metal can shields.

the amplifier goes hot, m0ar hot = limited lifespan.

BY ALL MEANS USE IT, that's why it's there,  the cooling is just practical.

The solder and periphery components all start to degrade/ crack with High heat, because of uneven expansion of the PCB.

vrms are also always vulnerable.

it' doesn't need alot of cooling, but it really shouldn't be nothing.  the fact that it's nothing out of the box, they planned this.  they want you to get one every 2-5 years when it inevitably starts to give intermittent performance. In other countries repair shops have boxes and boxes of busted routers, because they get them all the time, and salvage parts between busted units to make working ones..

[tp4tissue]

Doin' some testing,  ~3000 connections,  95MB/s incoming, 

Router floats at 35% CPU,  67' Celcius

Pretty stable. No crash

Router can prolly handle way more, but the torrent client crashes, not enuff write speed across 3 ssds because of random i/o..

Tp4 needs intel 3D cache !!!!

[tp4tissue]

Just did a scan,   There's this 1 house with 2 or 3 AX routers near Tp4..

p00r ol' tp4 just got AC..

/contamination
/irradiated


Have they done any biological safety tests for places where there are hundreds of routers transmitting. I mean, 1 to 2 watt each really adds up..

[Leslieann]

So, does the traffic you pull through it "wear it out" or shorten its life?

the amplifier goes hot, m0ar hot = limited lifespan.
The solder and periphery components all start to degrade/ crack with High heat, because of uneven expansion of the PCB.

I believe wifi is power limited to under 3 watts, shouldn't need an amp I would think.


Both problems go back to one thing regardless, capacitors.
They can handle REALLY high heat, but the hotter they are and the more often you get power dips (or under powered) the faster they wear out.

Want your router to last a long time, get an UPS (battery backup), this can double the lifespan as it reduces the power fluctuations and wear on the capacitors. Honestly, a TON of dead electronic devices can be fixed with new caps. Trouble is finding them and then waiting for the next to fail.

[Leslieann]

p00r ol' tp4 just got AC..

Have they done any biological safety tests for places where there are hundreds of routers transmitting. I mean, 1 to 2 watt each really adds up.. [/size][/color]

How many of those people have AX at both ends and not just a new router?
You need both to get it to work, it's also over-rated.


Walls block a LOT of the signal as does anything water or metal.
Your cell phone is FAR more dangerous than all of them combined.

[tp4tissue]

There're so many janky wifi cards on the market now.

[tp4tissue]

OMG, lol, they make an ax210 card that is half height for older laptops, $28,  hrrrm... x220 could use an upgrade..  buhhhhh wth would you one do on x220 with m0ar speed ?



ssssssssssssssssssss...... don't need it.......... x220, obsolete...... ssssssssss... ugh............  why can't Tp4 close this browser page...

[Leslieann]

Once I hit higher end N speeds (like 300) the benefits pretty much drop to nill.
Sure things transfer faster but it's not that big a deal on a laptop... Desktop and server, absolutely, give me 2.5Gbit ASAP.

[tp4tissue]

can't get 300 on current the 6300 N adapter right now, 24MB/s next to router, 12-14 at distance.  on AC, getting 70MB/s 60up same distance.